His extraordinary absence was against any hope that he could clear himself.

Her husband had brought fatal and indelible disgrace upon his name, the name he had given to her and their children.
Her name! This morning, and for many days to come, it would be advertised as the author of the new book, which was to have been one of her stepping-stones to fame.

She had grasped at fame, and her hand had closed upon infamy.

There was no fear now that she would remain among the crowd of the unknown.

As the wife of a fraudulent banker she would be only too well and too widely talked of.
Why had she let her own full name be published?
She had yielded, though with some reluctance, to the business-like policy of her publisher, who had sought to catch the public eye by it; for her father, Lord Riversdale, was hardly yet forgotten as an author.